Music in its many forms is recognized as one of the great sources of pleasure for mankind. The phrase “music to my ears” is understood to generalize to any welcome sensory input. The lullabies of mothers are the first experience of the power of music to soothe for newborns, and empowerment for mothers and fathers. The power of music to soothe humans even when brains are at the very earliest stages of development is never lost.
Music has been recognized as a source of emotional comfort at times of major loss. Thus, requiems such as those of Mozart or Verdi, as well as the chants of Gregorian monks and singers from many religions, are recognized for their power to diminish the sense of loss and vulnerability in those who have experienced the death of beloved relatives or friends, and to relieve anxiety by creating a sense of community and link to powerful historical forces.
The therapeutic benefits of music have been acknowledged for centuries by many cultures and religions. The power of music to facilitate healing sick is recognized by the discipline of music therapy, which is now well-established as of provable benefit to many who are ill, including those with coronary artery heart disease and serious mental disorders, such as major depression and schizophrenia.
Music from a variety of genres, including jazz, blues, rock, opera, classical, country, bluegrass, folk, and heavy metal, is a highly valued way to experience pleasure. Extensive scientific research in the last 50 years has established that pleasure results from stimulating activity in specific areas of the medio-temporal lobes of the brain known as the limbic system. The limbic system is a key part of the human neural apparatus, as it enables us to respond emotionally and cognitively to various stimuli, threatening as well as pleasure-giving, in the environment.
The limbic system is a set of brain structures, including the hippocampus, amygdala, anterior thalamic nuclei, and limbic cortex, which support a variety of functions, including emotion, behavior, long term memory, and olfaction. For most, the pleasure experienced from listening to music, whether live or recorded, and the capacity of music to make the listener feel, think and remember its special qualities, results from the individual's limbic system response. However, music also can sometimes be aversive because of subjective responses to its nature as combinations of sounds based on tonalities, timing, and rhythms, painful associations of an idiosyncratic nature with the music, of aspects of its production, e.g. volume, repetition, and, finally, the quality of the recorded sound and its reproduction by man-made equipment.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method, and accompanying apparatus, to enhance the stimulation of the limbic system response in listeners of recorded audio signals, and produce an identifiable physiological effect through technical means of sound production.